● Pick one concept from the assigned readings that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.
I particularly like the concept of intercultural identity and how it can enhance one’s awareness of other cultures. I have never lived outside of the United States, but have had many opportunities to become familiar with other cultures and the rules that guide them.
A particular example comes to mind when I think about stepping outside of my norms and traditions and being open to another’s way of life. My neighbors are from Jordan and Palestine and had just moved to San Jose and introduced themselves to me in broken English and invited me over for tea. I was so happy to have such nice neighbors and was completely interested in getting to know my new friends. Over time we became very good friends and on many occasions I was treated to home made dinners and desserts.
We worked through our communication barriers and talked openly about our cultural difference and similarities. We even laughed about the ways in which I violated their traditional rules. I was welcomed into their family and they were welcomed into mine. I feel so lucky to have had a chance to somewhat experience a culture very different than my own and feel that I can only grow from such an experience.
Happy Blogging:)
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6 comments:
I really find the topic of intercultural identity to be very interesting as well. I enjoyed reading your example of your neighbours and although you have never travelled to their countries, you have gotten a chance to experience their culture, learn what their norms are, learn how the things that are norms in American society offend them, and learn the differences between Jordanian culture and your own culture.
We are very lucky that the Bay Area is such a mosaic of cultures and that simply by stepping outside our doors, we can experience so many cultures. In fact, I always find it very neat that San Francisco has the most restaurants per capita of any American city. Most of these restraunts are from other countries. I recently went to a restaurant in San Francisco called "SAHA". It is a Yemenese place and I found the food to be very tasteful. We ended up talking to the staff who shared a lot of their culture with us and related their food to their lifestyle. It was a very interesting experience...
I love hearing about people and seeing people engage within a different culture. It takes a lot of courage to learn and want to participate in a different culture because there are so many differences from our own. Learning about another culture allows us to grow as individuals and become worldlier even if we physically have not traveled to that particular country. I love intercultural communication and have always been fascinated by it because there is so much to learn. In an intercultural class, I met a male student who was going to study abroad in Japan last spring. He was teaching himself Japanese and studying the culture before he went so when he arrived he would be prepared and be able to throw himself into the Japanese culture right when he got there. I was fascinated by this and wanted to know more about what he was doing to prepare and what it was about the Japanese culture that he loved.
I think that living in America (especially in California) allows us the opportunity to be open to experience new cultures. The idea of having the freedom to experience new foods, new religions, new music, or new languages, creates an atmosphere of great possibilities.
Living in the bay area has always meant tolerance first. Isn't that the beauty of living in a place where you can be yourself? Even if it means that "yourself" can take on new incarnations? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not under the impression that it’s Shangrala in California, and that we all are holding hands and singing friendship songs. However, some days if you look real close you can see moments where diverse people are speaking partial English to one another. And in that moment they are respectful of their presence and mindful of just being there.
Cherry - thanks for sharing your story. What a wonderful experience you've had with your neighbors! You said that you both laughed when you violated their traditional rules. What traditions did you violate?
Carol,
The traditions that I violated were:
1. I got invited to a baby shower at my neighbor's house and thought I should bring a bottle of wine. Thank fully, I was stopped by a mutual friend before entering my neighbor's home and was told that Muslim women aren't allowed to drink and that I would be offending their traditional customs if I brought my bottle of wine into the baby shower. Her and I laughed and shared what had happened with my neighbors the next day. Nehma and Arej (my neighbor's) laughed so hard because they understood that at many American baby showers acoholic beverages are served and understood how I could have assumed that it would have been acceptable to bring a bottle of wine to their baby shower.
Thank goodness I didn't walk in the door and offer the women a glass of wine. That would have been so embarrassing:)
The second tradition I violated was when I was having dinner at Nehma's house and her son and son-in-law asked me to join them in smoking from their hooka pipe, they had strawberry flavored tobacco.
Of course, I wasn't going to be rude, so I accepted their invitation. I assumed that is more polite to participate when invited than to decline their invitation. I thought they might consider me rude if I declined their invitation.
So, there I went smoking with them and in walks their father, who is obviously upset, and says something to his wife, who then comes to me and says that it is not okay for women to smoke. I felt confused and frustrated. Why would they ask me to smoke with them if they knew women weren't supposed to smoke? The next day Nehma told me that her husband is very old fashion and doesn't belive women should smoke, but that her and sons don't hold onto that same rule. They think that it is okay for American women to smoke, but not their wives or mother's.
Nehma and her sons appologized and I laughed and asked that they let me know ahead of time about these things.
We ended up talking about how I was raised with my parents and their traditions and beliefs, but that I do not hold the same ideas and how easy it is to make these mistakes and or assumptions and apply them to everyone in the family or culture. We recognized the differences from generation to generation and from one individual to another.
It was a great learning opportunity!
Cherry:)
Cherry - Those are a couple of amazing learning experiences. I particularly liked the 'smoking' experience. Traditional culture versus non-traditional culture, both in the same family. I have had similar experiences, of course not the same situations, but experiences where I have encountered a vast difference in an older generation versus a newer generation in the same family. Thank you so much for sharing these experiences. :)
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